Buying illegal drugs online - one of the benefits (if that's the word) of Bitcoin

Posted by David Brooks |
Thursday, August 15, 2013

Forbes magazine has an excellent interview with the head of Silk Road, the anonymous online marketplace infamous for being a good way to buy illegal drugs. You can (and should) rad the article here; it's a great example of what a journalist can do by spending a lot of time working on a story.

The story is of interest to GraniteGeek because, as it says, "Silk Road’s active ingredient (is) the cryptographic digital currency known as Bitcoin. 'We’ve won the State’s War on Drugs because of Bitcoin,' writes (Silk Road's founder)."

This synergy cuts both ways: Bitcoin is much bigger than the black market these days, but without a black market it wouldn't have gotten this far.

By the way, Silk Road's paranoid, anonymous founder did the interview for the most capitalistic of reasons - seeking publicity in the face of competition. It seems that other anonymous online marketplaces are trying to grab a piece of the drug pie.